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The end is nigh? Talk amongst yourselves.


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On 2/14/2020 at 3:57 PM, thereasonsy said:

I debated sending this all week but as the youth say "it's for the culture". Zach, in reviewing their channels and press mentions they seem to have a strategy that revolves around dripping of information that is usually one or two characters a wave each convention. If you follow the pattern instead of announcing a whole wave at once they have been announcing a figure or two a few days before major conventions internationally. They also have a content calendar that honours the anniversaries of the subjects. 25 anniversary of AOA here's a wave. 40th anniversary of Alpha Flight, here's a box set. They leaned in heavily into the 80 years of Marvel and also tapped into 90's nostalgia hard with the "Classic waves on ToyBiz cards" and their character selections. They also have been completing teams.

Just some quick hits but in the past year, they had over 359,053 mentions with a projected reach of 108, 825,690 of the #MarvelLegends hastag. Their brand sentiment is over 90% POSITIVE. Add in Neutral and you are looking at a brand that is in the high 90s. The majority of these mentions can be attributed to photos with instagram leading the way but with pinterest, flickr, reddit, and daily motion being the most important websites*. Cavat- not all comic sites are pulled into the media tool I am using so these numbers are actually higher. also checking on trends the summer is their most active time period and most searches in the US are from West Virginia. 

In the same time period, Collect DST as a WHOLE, got only 20K mentions with a reach of 241,350,159. Twitter is actually driving that volume. What I care about is Minimates. In the same time period the term Minimates has barely 8K mentions with a reach of 40K but a high sentiment score of 90%. #Minimates barely has 3,633 mentions with a reach just north of 3,402,043. Users of the hash have an even higher sentiment toward the brand at 93%. This is dominated by photos on Instagram. Three websites were pulled in pcgamer, actionfigureinsider, popcultureinsider. There are API limitations with the tool but even with that I can tell that the top conversation drivers are myself, Luke, btdatdbs, heinousfigures, professor_minimate.and the previews video with Walt and Weezie. In checking trends, your search volume is mostly on the coasts and not in middle America but Indiana and New York are the states that search the term the most.

And since this is "for fun" Buffy. Buffy the term has over 131,155 mentions with a reach of 531,492,275. Brand sentiment is at 84% but that is mostly due to the revamp news and Joss Whedon's ongoing issue. The show itself is doing well. The driver of the conversations is photos with gifs coming second and twitter is the channel of choice. .

I understand that you are saying preference is an issue and I don't disagree that it isn't a factor but the numbers tell me awareness is the actual issue. Archie may be cheap but I would recommend slicing that and putting the money into SEO, retargeting off of Walgreens properties and actually leaning in harder into your FB/Instagram including paid. You need to increase your reach and your frequency. Also you need better influencer partners and to give them materials way ahead of time. You need a clear social strategy and cadence to the channels. I would actually look at to what Luke is doing because it has a pretty good rhythm. I would also be in my insights every day. That's your free advice.

These are amazing insights. And don't look too closely at what I have been doing the past year - I have been slacking compared to years past! I have had to devote more and more time to my other business, partially because of the drop in Minimate releases. But Zach has been very supportive of my marketing efforts, and I will always appreciate that.

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11 hours ago, MisterPL said:

Do Marvel Series 80 and 81 seem like a last hurrah to anyone? 

Series 78 was Spider-Man. Series 79 was X-Men. Series 80 doesn't really have a theme but is anchored by Iron Man and has some oft-requested collection-fillers.  Series 81 catches up on more X-Men and some X-adjacent characters.

Now I'm wondering if DST's license with Marvel is up for renewal. I'm also wondering what Walgreens will be taking, if anything. I'm still on the hunt for Series 11.

Are you saying that because Series 80 and 81 are relatively successful in the number of desired characters delivered they must indicate a wrapping-up of sorts? And not just a greater attention to making each wave a must-have for collectors? Just making sure I understand.

Walgreens currently has three more assortments of Marvel Minimates, Animated and movie, in the works. They are not the last three that I am aware of.

 

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10 hours ago, DSTZach said:

Are you saying that because Series 80 and 81 are relatively successful in the number of desired characters delivered they must indicate a wrapping-up of sorts?

Yes. It seems to be catering to the existing consumer base here, one we've been told is a small fraction of the overall base. It feels more like a break-up note than a love letter. I'm happy to be wrong.

Glad to hear Walgreens still considers Minimates a viable brand. In the absence of TRU, they should be enjoying decent sell-through. Hopefully meetings at Toy Fair confirm that.

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  • 5 months later...
4 hours ago, youbastards said:

This is the first time that I can recall where BBTS doesn’t have any full waves of Marvel Minimates in stock to order.

it makes me sad.

Are they sold out? Or did they just not order at all?

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There wasn't much shown at Toy Fair and it's not like there was a glut or upcoming Minimates properties outside of Marvel at SDCC. I don't expect to see anything new at NYCC beyond the X-Men Animated assortment.

The sad thing is DST has licenses for other properties in this category. They're just not pushing the brand after what happened with Bruce Lee and John Wick.

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On 8/19/2020 at 5:46 PM, buttheadsmate said:

Was anything ever going to happen with those 2 licenses?   

This. And yet the Rocketter, Buffy, and more. So many options. I think we are down to three LCS waves and then whatever Walgreens will buy from the MCU and animated.

Edited by thereasonsy
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  • 2 weeks later...
18 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

there was a TRU walking distance from my house.  i could sneak over whenever i wanted to look for new minimates.  even though its been a while, i remembered it recently and missed it.

probably b/c it just now has been converted to a different store.  the space had been vacant since TRU went out of business.

:(

 

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3 hours ago, Trekker 42 said:

It does make me feel a little better but I also think of all the exclusive minimates which would’ve been made in that meantime. 

So tired of this literally godforsaken year. 

Weirdly I'm with you. The brick and mortar apocalypse was coming and the need for a good online store had already caught  up with DST but the thought of what if... that will always be haunting. We could have had several waves of goodness. Or maybe just the same waves that ended up at Walgreens. Hell, it would have ben great to have a 30th anniversary wave celebrating the New Warriors but we rarely get nice things anymore.

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12 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

C'mon ,cheer up things could be worse :thumbsup:  Much to my surprise Minimates are still being made .....that's good .

As a long-time online purchaser ........everything in my collection was sent to me......I don't miss 'stores' although I understand why many people do.  

True we do still get them. Now I always buy a set from a LCS but the majority I buy from Luke. For Walgreens stuff I buy and ship out to anyone in need. 

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Has anyone been to one of the two TRUs in NJ or TX?

The one in NJ seems like a glorified kiosk with an extremely limited selection. All style, no substance. I'm thinking they should be pandering to consumer nostalgia aesthetically while focusing any rebuilding efforts on infrastructure.

I'd sooner drive five hours to the one in Ontario.

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2 hours ago, MisterPL said:

Has anyone been to one of the two TRUs in NJ or TX?

The one in NJ seems like a glorified kiosk with an extremely limited selection. All style, no substance. I'm thinking they should be pandering to consumer nostalgia aesthetically while focusing any rebuilding efforts on infrastructure.

I'd sooner drive five hours to the one in Ontario.

Nope. I’m with you on this one. 

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3 hours ago, MisterPL said:

Has anyone been to one of the two TRUs in NJ or TX?

The one in NJ seems like a glorified kiosk with an extremely limited selection. All style, no substance. I'm thinking they should be pandering to consumer nostalgia aesthetically while focusing any rebuilding efforts on infrastructure.

I'd sooner drive five hours to the one in Ontario.

i hit the one in houston and honestly, i forgot all about it until you asked this.  its bad.  very limited selection and just not at all like what we had growing up.  i don't think i saw any marvel legends or starwars (i could be wrong, its been a while).  i remember legos and nerf guns and a lot of board games which surprised me but the action figures were not well represented.

i don't recall if they had video games.

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  • 2 months later...

Well... in not great news Amazon Pharmacy has launched and Walgreens stock prices dropping I hope DST gets its online sales figured out. https://www.barrons.com/articles/cvs-and-walgreens-have-new-rival-in-pharmacy-business-amazon-51605626655

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